Across Georgia

ATLANTA — A former supervisor at a prison in south Georgia has pleaded guilty to conspiring with other officers to assault and injure an inmate in 2010.

The guilty plea by 31-year-old Emmett McKenzie of Montezuma, Ga., was announced Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice. McKenzie was a sergeant at Macon State Prison in Oglethorpe.

McKenzie is the third officer to plead guilty in the case. McKenzie recently served as a lieutenant at Dooly State Prison in Unadilla.

McKenzie admitted that he saw members of the Correctional Emergency Response Team escort an inmate into a gym.

Prosecutors say the team members beat the inmate and McKenzie did nothing to stop the assault.

McKenzie faces a maximum of five years in prison.

Sex offender was school volunteer

FAIRBURN, GA. — School officials south of Atlanta told parents that one of the parent volunteers is on the Georgia sex offender list.

Bear Creek Middle School Principal Darron Franklin told parents at the Fairburn school that the school system will review the volunteer approval process to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Students at Bear Creek Middle School and Creekside High School say the volunteer handed out pizza at football games. The man also went on field trips and was around children more than once, Fulton County sheriff’s officials said.

The volunteer passed a background check because he used a different name on his application and it didn’t match the sex registry. School officials say he has been banned from school property.

The issue came to light after parent Bobby Wilcox looked at Georgia’s online sex offender registry and recognized the volunteer. Wilcox said he called the principal, and the district immediately banned the volunteer.